Dougherty Community Homeplace

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Now, every good homeplace has a story behind it, and this one out in Rains County has been holdin' its own for well over a century. It starts with a man named James W.

Dougherty, founder of the Dougherty community itself. But the marker we're talkin' about today, it belongs to his son. Robert Newberry Dougherty.

That's the name to remember. Robert took over management of his father's farm back in the 1860s, and by 1870 he was the sole owner of the family land. Not just helping out.

Not just pitching in. Sole owner. The whole thing.

Now, a man who owns land like that, he's gonna want a place to stand on it. So right here at this very site, in 1880 and 1881, Robert Newberry Dougherty erected a one-room house. One room.

That's where it began. But here's the thing about a house that's loved. It grows.

Later additions were made, the marker tells us, and the Dougherty family has maintained that home from the day of its construction on down through the years. They didn't just keep it standing, either. They opened it up.

To the community. Weddings were held there. Music festivals filled whatever air that old house could hold.

Family reunions brought the generations back together under that same roof Robert put up all those years ago. And at one point, the homeplace served as the actual headquarters for the Dougherty Rural Telephone Company. So this place has been a farm, a gathering hall, a chapel of sorts for folks saying their vows, a stage for musicians, and a telephone exchange.

One house. One family. All of that under one roof that started as a single room in 1880.

That's not just a homeplace. That's a community holding itself together, one addition at a time.

What the marker says

Robert Newberry Dougherty, son of Dougherty community founder James W. Dougherty, assumed management of his father's farm in the 1860s and by 1870 was sole owner of the family land. At this site in 1880-81 he erected a one-room house to which later additions were made. The Dougherty family has maintained the home since its construction and has often opened it for community gatherings. Over the years, the homeplace has been the site of weddings, music festivals, and family reunions, and at one time served as headquarters for the Dougherty Rural Telephone Co.